The much-awaited first Budget of the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh(UP) has managed to keep the fiscal deficit below 3 per cent of the state gross domestic product, even as the size grew 11 per cent to Rs 3,84,659 core.

In the backdrop of a loan waiver scheme amounting to Rs 36,000 crore, coupled with massive outgo towards additional expenses of Pay Commission implementation, the Budget was keenly anticipated.

Yogi said the Budget, tabled by state Finance Minister Rajesh Agarwal, was aimed at spurring the state to a new era and a new direction to socio-economic progress.

“We are targeting double-digit growth in UP and figure among developed states of the country. This Budget stresses upon villages, the poor and farmers,” he said.

Despite higher expenditure towards development projects and pre-poll promises, he said they had managed to keep the fiscal deficit below 3 per cent at 2.97 per cent. Former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, who also held the finance portfolio in the previous Samajwadi Party government, had kept the deficit under 3 per cent, at 2.96 per cent, in his first Budget of June 2012. Adityanath said they had managed finances by judiciously utilising financial resources, cutting expenses and plugging leakages.

“In fact, the crop loan waiver is technically not a loan waiver but debt redemption. The government would be redeeming the debt of small and marginal farmers,” Additional Chief Secretary (finance) Anup Chandra Pandey added.

The Budget has made provision of Rs 55,781 crore for new development schemes. Several previous schemes of the erstwhile regime have been discontinued or re-branded.

The last full-year Budget presented by Akhilesh Yadav was of Rs 3,46,935 crore on February 12. This Budget has estimated receipts of Rs 377,190 crore, comprising Rs 3,19,397 crore and Rs 57,793 crore under the revenue and capital heads, respectively. Revenue receipts comprise Rs 232,908 crore as tax revenue, of which Rs 111,501 crore and Rs 1,21,406 crore would accrue as its own tax receipts and UP’s share in central taxes, respectively.

Expenditure is Rs 3,84,659 crore, with Rs 3,07,118 crore and Rs 77,541 crore by way of revenue and capital expenditure, respectively. However, the Budget estimates the fiscal deficit at Rs 42,967 crore during the financial year. Pandey maintained the dispensation had achieved all the vital fiscal parameters viz. keeping the fiscal deficit below 3 per cent and public debt below 30 per cent at 28.6 per cent.